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'It was so unreal:' Grande Cache man feels lucky to be alive after encounter with grizzly

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
1:00:00 MDT PM

James Wanyandie, who suffered a broken arm and deep scratches to his leg as the result of a bear attack near Grande Cache last weekend, and his wife, Carol, speak with reporters in a waiting room at the QEII Hospital yesterday.

A northern Alberta man is thankful to be alive after being attacked by a grizzly bear on Saturday.

"I didn't know what to think. I just think of God in a time like that, for sure," James Wanyandie said from his bed at the QEII Hospital in Grande Prairie yesterday.

"Nobody usually survives grizzly attacks anymore. There are survivors, but they have really bad injuries. I thought 'were we going to make it back to the vehicle to get some help?' It was hard."

The 39-year-old Cree man from north of Grande Cache was out with his 77-year-old father, Tom, on Saturday in the bush looking for moose antlers.

He uses them for carvings, furniture and decorations around his home.

While they were out walking, Wanyandie said he heard a noise above him and looked up to see a grizzly cub climbing in a tree.

Shortly after, he heard more noise and found himself looking at the mother as she charged at him.

"I saw a bear, a small cub climbing a tree and then I said to my dad 'bear,' and started loading the gun up right away," he said.

"I looked to the side and I saw the (mother) bear, right under where the small bear was on the tree; I saw the bear coming full speed at me."

Wanyandie quickly aimed his weapon and fired, but the bullet appeared to miss and the noise of the shot didn't faze the bear at all. It pounced on the man, clamping its huge jaws on his arm, snapping it right through.

"For a moment I thought she was going to stop; that's what they usually do," he said. "She swung me around like nothing."

Seeing his son being tossed around, the elderly Wanyandie ran at the bear, yelling and cursing, brandishing a walking stick.

He managed to shove the stick in the bear's mouth, doing enough damage to get the sow off his son.

Wanyandie said the bear then turned on his father. Lying on the ground, his arm snapped in two, he attempted to reload his gun with one arm but it wouldn't work.

"I don't know what I did. I just grabbed the gun and poked at the bear because it's on my dad now," he said.

"Then it got the attention back on me. That's when it grabbed my leg and came after me again. I was almost kind of knocked out. It was so unreal."

Tom Wanyandie continued to beat the bear on the head and nose with his walking stick and it eventually ran off.

After the bear left, Wanyandie and his father made the 600-yard (546 metres) trek to their vehicle.

"We kept on looking back, thinking it was going to come after us," he said.

"We kept straight towards the vehicle. Step by step, my leg kept getting stiffer and stiffer. The blood was not dripping, but I could see either a bite or a big scratch, real deep."

Wanyandie climbed into the driver's seat and drove himself and his father back towards the highway.

"My hand was hanging, crunching every time I bounced it," he said. "I tried not to think about it. There was a lot of pain, but at the same time I was trying to be tough."

Driving with one arm, he had to drive another 500 or so metres towards Highway 40 before cell reception kicked in. He then called his wife and told her what had happened, asking her to call 911 to meet him somewhere on the highway.

"I didn't know what to think," Carol Wanyandie said. "The first thing that popped into my mind, when you hear about a grizzly attack or a bear attack, just the worst picture pops into your head. I didn't know what to expect."

The couple has six children - ranging in age from 18 months to 11 years old - who were all crying when their mother left for the hospital.

"Once I came back and explained Dad was going to be okay, they were fine," Carol said.

The children usually accompany their father into the bush, but this was a rare time when he went without them, Carol said.

"Once he's healed, but he won't be taking my boys out anymore," she said, when asked if she would be okay with her husband going back out into the bush.

The two men met up with an emergency response team and were taken to Grande Cache hospital and James was later transferred to the QEII Hospital in Grande Prairie.

Tom, who James said had a broken hand after being bitten by the bear, was treated for minor injuries and released. James suffered a broken arm and deep wounds to his leg, though he is not sure if they are teeth or scratch marks.

He is being released today after three days in hospital, but doctors say it will be about eight weeks before his bones heal and probably close to October before he can begin physiotherapy.

Both Carol and James said something needs to be done about the grizzly population in northern Alberta.

"For us to get attacked, me and my dad, it shouldn't have been; we're experienced, but I guess anybody can get attacked," he said. "There are too many grizzlies out there. I think something has to be done about it. It can't continue like that. There are too many attacks every year; some have been killed, some make it but get bad injuries."

"Within the last two or three years we've noticed a big increase, not just in grizzlies but even in cougars," Carol said. "This past winter, trappers were catching them in their wolf snares."

The best advice James can give to people out in the bush is to be extremely cautious and prepared. He said this attack would definitely make him more cautious.

"I'm always cautious, but I might have an extra weapon, for sure," he said.